The Moonlight Spell
by prepare4trouble
Summary: The Shaman Council have a spell they need to perform. The only trouble is they need help from Howard and Vince... Howince slash
1. Chapter 1

The moonlight shining down on the faces of the Shaman Council cast them in an eerie yellow light. The ground was damp from rain earlier that day. Wet grass tickled the soles of his feet and squelched in-between his toes, and Naboo wished that he had thought to put shoes on before he left the flat. There was a definite chill in the air, and he folded his arms tightly across his body in an effort to block out the cold.

"Naboo, the enigma," the voice of the Head Shaman boomed out loudly across the table, "we have summoned you before us today to ask you a favour."

Naboo groaned inwardly, "This isn't going to be like the time you borrowed my magic carpet, is it?" It had taken hours to get the stains out, and it still had a funny smell whenever it got a bit damp.

"Nothing like that, no. Actually, I was hoping to borrow your friends."

Naboo thought about it for a minute, "Alright," he said, "but I've only got up to series six, and sometimes the last disk of series five won't play properly,"

"Naboo, you plonker!" cut in Tony Harrison from his position on the table in front of Saboo, "He's talking about the moron twins - Howard and Vince, is it? - Not some crappy American sitcom!"

"Oh, as if you don't love it," Saboo said, "I saw you crying your eyes out when Ross and Rachel broke up."

"Do me a favour! I had something in my eye. The H-Man does not cry!"

Dennis banged his hand down hard on the table top, "Can we please focus? Yes, Naboo, I need to borrow Howard and Vince. Just for a few hours. You can have them back straight afterwards."

Naboo's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "What do you need them for?" he demanded.

"Oh, just a spell..." Dennis glanced from Naboo to Harrison to Saboo and back. All along the table the members of the Shaman Council were looking at him curiously, waiting for more information. "Oh, for goodness sake! It's a love spell, all right? It's a love spell to use on my cheating wife. I'm going to make her fall in love with me again, and then I'm going to dump her. Ha!"

"That's ridiculous!" Harrison exclaimed, "I know that spell, the moonlight spell, right? You need a couple in love. They need to make love at midnight under the light of the full moon while you say the incantations."

"Harrison's right, Dennis," Naboo told him, "You've picked the wrong couple, it's never going to happen."

Dennis shook his relatively small head, "I assure you, Naboo, that I have seen irrefutable proof that these two are deeply in love. Nothing you say will change my mind on this. It has to be them, I don't know any other couples that don't already hate each other."

Naboo rolled his eyes, "Look, it's not like that, okay? I know they're in love. You know it – though I don't know how – but Howard and Vince? They've got no idea."

"Then tell me, Naboo," Dennis' eyes took on a menacing gleam, "Why is it that I saw them kissing on your roof during that awful party, just seconds after they both told me that they were in love?"

"Dunno," Naboo shrugged, "they've got a weird sense of humour, maybe it was a joke? Look, I'll ask them, okay?"

"This is not a request, Naboo. Bring them here or face the consequences."

Naboo sighed, "Alright, alright, I'll bring them, but I can't guarantee they'll do what you want."

Dennis smiled, "All you need to worry about is getting them here by midnight on Friday. The rest, we have ways of making sure that will happen."

That didn't sound good at all. If he was less stoned, he might have been worried. Naboo shrugged and unrolled his magic carpet, "Fine. But don't break them, alright? I need them in one piece." With that he jumped onto his carpet and disappeared into the night sky.

* * *

Naboo arrived back at the flat to find Howard and Vince watching TV with Bollo. He ignored them, let himself into his room and sat on the bed. This was not good. This was very not good. How was he supposed to get Howard and Vince to go with him to the Shaman council? If he told them what Dennis wanted, there was no way. If he didn't, they'd demand to know why. And if he didn't tell them or lied to them to make them go, they would never trust him again afterwards. And...they kissed? Howard and Vince? Surely not. The head Shaman must have been mistaken. Or hallucinating. He was incredibly over-sensitive to drugs, maybe he spent too long in the same room as something and it affected him.

Naboo lit some incense, rolled a joint and tried to think of any possible way that this could end without him losing two rent paying employees who worked for a pittance and didn't mind sharing a flat with an ape. He couldn't.

A knock on the door distracted him from his thoughts and he looked up to see Vince's head poking around the door. "Alright, Naboo. We're going to watch Howard's new Captain Cabinets DVD, you wanna join us?"

Naboo tried to take a drag on his joint, but it had gone out. He set it down in the ashtray Vince had made him for his birthday, nodded wordlessly and followed his friend out into the sitting room.

* * *

As usual, Howard was the first one awake the next morning. He carefully moved Vince's arm, which had found its way to laying across his chest during the night, and crept reluctantly out of bed. He put on his slippers and dressing gown and headed to the kitchen to make the tea.

As he crept through the flat in the half light of the early morning, he noticed Naboo still laying on the sofa, snoring quietly. His arm dropped down onto the floor, brushing the carpet just next to a bong that had been pushed over. There was water everywhere. Great, now the sofa and the carpet were going to stink of bong water.

Sometimes, Howard wondered whether he should move out, find himself some more adult-suitable accommodation. But Vince loved it living above the shop, not having to get up until the last minute and still getting to work on time, or Vince's version of on time, something most people would consider to be outrageously late. Even Howard's most subtle hints that they look for their own place had been met with immediate rejection. And where Vince was, Howard was too. That was the way it worked. Besides, he'd never be able to afford somewhere on his own.

Naboo stirred in his sleep and Howard froze. They were nearly out of teabags, the last thing he needed was to be denied his morning cuppa because Naboo woke up early. The Shaman resettled, and Howard crept past unnoticed. When he tried to sneak past again carrying the tea, Naboo was gone.

* * *

Vince was late down as usual. Howard didn't mind, it gave him time to tidy Stationery Village and put on some music that might provide the customers with a little more ambience than Vince's usual electro pop. People were more likely to stay and browse if they enjoyed the music, and Howard knew that deep down, even if they didn't realise it yet, everyone liked jazz. Even Vince.

Still, as much as he appreciated a bit of alone time in the morning, by the time Vince sauntered in two hours later, Howard was too bored and irritated to even ask for his excuse. Instead, he muttered "I'm going out," grabbed his coat and a bag, and walked out of the door.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Vince called after him, but the door was already closed, with Howard on the outside.

Vince sighed loudly and looked around the shop for something to do. He surreptitiously picked up a few random items from Stationery Village and hid them underneath the counter, switched off Howard's jazz record, then sat down behind the till, crossed his arms and waited for something to happen.

Being Vince, it didn't take very long. Less than five minutes later, Naboo stuck his head around the door leading to the stairs up to the flat, "Did I just hear Howard leaving?" he asked.

Vince nodded, "Yeah. He wouldn't say where." He thought about it for a minute, running through every possible explanation for Howard's storming out as soon as he arrived, "Maybe he's gone to buy me a present,"

"Why? Is it your birthday?"

Vince considered, "Dunno, maybe. I'm not very good at keeping track of the date. Why? I don't look older, do I?"

Naboo shrugged, "A bit, yeah. Anyway, Vince, can you do me a favour?"

Vince grabbed his emergency mirror from underneath the counter and checked his reflection for signs of ageing. "I suppose, depends what it is."

Naboo sat down on the other stool behind the counter and explained to Vince everything that the council had said. When he had finished, he spun around and looked at Vince, waiting for a response.

Vince stared straight back, replaying everything the shaman had said in his head, then he laughed. "That's hilarious, Naboo! I didn't know you were funny!"

"It's not a joke," Naboo frowned to emphasize the seriousness of the situation, "If the two of you don't appear before the Shaman Council on Friday night, I'm dead. For definite this time, Tony Harrison's been itching to get back in that executioner's mask ever since you saved me that last time."

"Oh. But..." the side of Vince's mouth twitched as he tried to suppress another giggle, "There's no way. Look, Naboo, Howard's a good mate, the best, but I'm not going to shag him. He'd be rubbish. And even if I wanted to, there's no way he'd agree. Especially not with the whole Shaman Council watching. Yeah, if it was just the two of us in our room and I turned on the charm, I reckon I could seduce him – well, I know I could – but that lot leering at us, it might ruin the mood, y'know?"

Naboo took a deep breath and tried to clear from his mind the disturbing image that Vince had planted there. "All Dennis said is I've got to get you there. I do that and I'm off the hook. You just need to refuse to play along, and that's it, there's nothing they can do about it, it there? Just say you're not in the mood."

"I did have other plans, you know. Why did it have to be Friday night? Couldn't they have picked a rubbish night, like Tuesday or something?"

"That's when the full moon is, and trust me, you don't want to try getting him to upset his schedule."

Vince thought about it, then nodded slowly, "Fine, I'm in, but I dunno about Howard. I can't imagine him being up for it."

"Yeah, about that," Naboo stood up and started walking back towards the door, "can you talk him into it? Cheers." And then he was gone.

* * *

Vince stared after him in irritation, then moved the paperclip and sellotape from under the counter and placed them carefully back exactly were he had found them. It was a good joke, but maybe he'd try it sometime when Naboo's life didn't depend on Howard agreeing to something so completely ridiculous.

Howard strolled back into the shop in a much better mood than when he had left, with a spring in his step and his head full of music. He nodded to Vince as he walked through the door. As he passed Stationery Village, he paused for a second to reposition a paperclip and a piece of sellotape that seemed to have moved out of place while he was away, then he sat down behind the counter.

Vince grinned widely, "Did you get me a present?"

"What? I went to the gym for the morning jazzercise class. Why would I have got you a present?"

"Naboo reckons it's my birthday,"

Howard 's brow crinkled in confusion and he shook his head, "Your birthday's not for five months, Vince."

"Oh, right." Disappointment clouded his features for a split second before another grin chased it away, "You doing anything on Friday night?"

Howard nodded, "I am, as it happens. I've made plans to take Leicester Corncrake out to a jazz improv night in that new club. Poor guy, since he got decapitated, he doesn't get out much."

"Ah. Right. So, you're doing that all night then? Listening to jazz in some old people's club with a disembodied head for company."

Howard nodded. "That's right. Do you want to come with us? But I warn you, it can get pretty crazy at these things. People getting up on stage completely unprepared, some of their stuff is pretty raw."

"Yeah, sounds like fun but I reckon I'll give it a miss. What time are you going to be home?"

Howard regarded Vince with suspicion, "Who are you, my mum? What does it matter what time I'll be home? Have I got a bed time? It isn't a school night, you know."

"Yeah. Erm, the thing is, I've kind of agreed that we'll help Naboo out with something. It's not til midnight, but you'll need to be back for, like, eleven so we can get there in time. So just be careful if you're gonna go into a jazz trance, yeah? Make sure you wake up in time to get back."

Howard dumped his bag of gym clothes on the floor and frowned, "What have you agreed to, Vince? This isn't like the time you volunteered me for a game of Pelt the Rabbit, is is?"

"No," Vince shook his head, "not exactly,"

"Good, because I meant what I said, you know. About what I'd do if you did it again."

"I know," Vince nodded.

"Then what?"

Vince sighed, "We've just got to go with Naboo to see the Shaman council and tell them we're not interested in shagging each other in the middle of the forest while they all watch," he paused and bit his bottom lip, "Unless you are interested, that is."

Howard' mouth opened to reply, but there were, literally, no words that could possibly provide a suitable answer to that. Instead, he shook his head from side to side once in disbelief, picked up his gym bag again, opened the door and walked up the stairs to the flat. Vince grinned to himself and got back to his sketch of his own face that he was doodling on the back of a letter marked IMPORTANT.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Okay, the second and final part. Thanks so much for the lovely reviews on part one. This chapter gets slightly more adult towards the end, but I think it still falls within the confines of the T rating. If anyone disagrees, let me know and I'll up it to an M._

The Moonlight Spell

Part 2

He hadn't really thought this through. If he had taken a minute to consider before blindly agreeing to Naboo's request, Vince would have realised that there were hundreds of things he could be doing on a Friday night that were more interesting than standing in a forest refusing to shag his best mate. There was that party, for example. Or he could sit around at home stabbing himself in the leg with a butter knife. Pretty much anything was better than coming face to face with the sword wielding psychopath that had tried to decapitate him. Especially since he had only escaped by convincing the head Shaman that he was in love with Howard. Now, what? They were supposed to stand there and confess that it had been a lie? He'd probably get his sword out and start swinging without a second's thought.

They were sitting on Naboo's flying carpet, speeding through the air high above the city. Just behind him, looking less than happy, Howard was trying to read by the moonlight. The moon wasn't cooperating, and was deliberately shining his light in the wrong direction.

"Howard?"

Howard gave up and put his book back in his travel bag, "What?"

"I've been thinking, and I reckon we should agree to do what the council wants."

Howard sighed, "Any particular reason?"

"Self preservation, mostly. The head Shaman'll cut my head off if he finds out we're not really in love, and he'll probably cut yours off too for helping me."

Howard thought this over. He didn't particularly relish the thought of spending the rest of his life as a disembodied head. Leicester Corncrake seemed to have got used to it, but Howard was a man of action. A man of action required a body. But there were better plans than that one. "Has it not occurred to you, Vince, that even a couple deeply in love wouldn't particularly want to have sex in a forest, in the middle of winter, while being watched by a bunch of shamans?"

Vince shrugged, "Some would,"

"But not us."

"I dunno," Vince told him, "I wouldn't mind actually, if I'd had a few drinks or whatever. Not with you, obviously. You'd ruin the mood with all your complaining."

"Naboo, turn the carpet around, we're going back to to the flat."

At the front of the carpet, Naboo shook his head, "Can't. It's a one-way stretch of air now all the way there, there's nowhere to turn off."

Vince rolled his eyes, "Relax, Howard. We'll say we can't do it. Just remember, no letting on we're not a couple, right? Any of you."

They flew on at high speed for another twenty minutes until they had left the city well behind and were flying over farms and woodland. As Naboo set the carpet gently down on the grass in the clearing where the council waited, Vince suppressed the urge to duck behind Howard in an effort to avoid the gaze of the Head Shaman.

"Ah, the guests of honour," Dennis' voice boomed out, cutting through the stillness of the night time air. "Just in time. Well done Naboo."

Naboo shrugged.

"Very well," Dennis continued, "Gentlemen, first things first, I would like to apologise for my reaction when I found out about your freakish and disturbing relationship. I imagine it seemed rude."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Vince told him, "I've had much worse than that," he smiled nervously and ignored the questioning look that Howard shot him.

"Nonetheless, a Shaman should be more enlightened about such things. Tell me, how long have the two of you been together?"

"Um..." Howard and Vince exchanged a panicked glance.

"About six months..." Vince said, unconvincingly.

The head Shaman's eyes narrowed in suspicion but before he had chance to respond, Howard leapt in to the conversation, "Six months? Try five months, two weeks and three days, less a couple of hours,"

Vince frowned in confusion and stared at Howard. "I always know how long it's been since my last birthday," he explained. It was a result of always being aware of how long he had left until the next one, and not – he was adamant about this – because he was keeping track of how long it had been since Vince had kissed him.

He turned to Dennis and added, "About that, anyway. It was at the party. Vince said he loved me, he kissed me and I realised I felt the same way. We have you to thank for it, sir. If it hadn't been for you trying to kill Vince, he never would have admitted his feelings, I never would have realised mine, and we'd both still be miserable and alone."

"Hey! Speak for yourself, _I_ was never miserable and alone," Vince told him, then dropped his voice to a whisper, "and less of the him trying to kill me stuff, might not be the best thing to remind him about, yeah?"

Dennis clapped his hands together in glee, "Excellent! "Then you owe me one. Okay, I'll prepare the spell, you two get naked."

"Yeah, about that," said, Vince, "we were thinking that maybe we wouldn't do it. It's not really our thing, you know?"

"What he means," Howard added, "is that, well, we're not really comfortable with the whole exhibitionism thing, so if it's all the same to you, we'll give it a miss. But thanks for thinking of us."

"It's not all the same to me. Not at all. I need this spell to work, and the two of you are an integral part of it!" Dennis had risen from his chair and begun to walk around the table towards them. Howard and Vince backed away slowly, while Naboo slipped away into the trees to avoid being caught in the middle.

Howard tried too keep his voice from shaking as he spoke, backing away without even realising that he was doing it. Vince clung onto his arm, tucking himself slightly behind Howard as though he might be able to offer some kind of protection. "Come on now, there's no need to be like this. Most people would have difficulty doing this kind of favour. I mean..." He stopped as he bumped into Vince, who had stopped after bumping into a tree. "Oh God. Don't kill me, please. I've got so much to give!"

Dennis held his sword aloft in a threatening manor, waving it slowly from side to side, aiming first at Howard, then Vince, then back to Howard, "Simply make love and you are free to go."

Howard whimpered and closed his eyes in terror, he tried to back up further, squashing Vince against the tree.

"Dennis, have you completely lost your mind?" Saboo's voice was barely audible over the thumping of Howard's heart.

"Yeah, Den," Harrison this time, "you can't expect them to perform under this much pressure!"

Vince, sensing an opportunity for escape, extracted himself from the impossibly tight space between Howard and the tree, and took a few seconds to brush the creases out of his t-shirt, "Right! Exactly! Would you be able to get it up with a bald psychopath waving a sword in your face? I don't think so."

"Erm, not that you're a psychopath," added Howard, giving Vince a quick elbow in the ribs, "you're obviously totally sane. And while this completely rational plan of yours does make perfect sense, and we'd be happy to help you out, we can't because...well, because..." a sheen of sweat appeared on Howard's brow as he tried and failed to come up with a reasonable ending to that sentence that didn't call the Head Shaman's sanity into question or insult him in any way. "Because..."

"Because we're not in love," said Vince quietly. The statement crept out without Vince's permission and hung in the air like a bad smell that just wouldn't waft away. All eyes were on him, and for the first time in his life, it made Vince uncomfortable.

Dennis stopped swinging his sword between the two of them and focused his attention solely on Vince, "What?"

He cleared his throat, ran a hand quickly through his hair and smiled nervously, "Yeah," he said, "we're not. We made it all up to stop you from murdering me. I honestly never touched your wife though."

Dennis waved a hand dismissively, "Then you're the only one that didn't," he told him, "I no longer care about her, the little trollop."

"Then why..." Vince glanced at Howard, but the other man was too focused on trying to back up through the tree to get as far from the sword as possible to pay any attention. Not having anyone to bounce the thought off of, Vince decided to continue anyway, "Why are you even doing this spell then? If you don't care about her, why do you want to make her fall in love with you?"

"Because I... That is to say, I..." All eyes were now on Dennis, he shook his head and looked away, "I don't know. I suppose I do still want her."

"That," Harrison's voice cut in at high volume over the awkward silence, "is pathetic!"

"No it's not!" Dennis spun around, sword still in his hand and focused his anger on the the tentacled alien, "She's mine! She married me, I have a right to make her love me!" He turned back to Howard and Vince, "Please. You have each other because of me. Can't you let me have the same thing?"

Vince rolled his eyes, "What part of 'we're not in love' don't you understand?"

"I don't understand the part where you don't realise the truth," Dennis told them, "I saw you on the roof, you don't kiss like that and not mean it." He flexed his fingers in an odd way and and unnoticed by Howard and Vince muttered a few quick words under his breath.

"Actually, he does," Howard told him, "all the time. I've seen him, every time we go out. He has a couple of drinks and he's sticking his tongue down the throat of anyone who pays him the slightest bit of interest. It's disgusting, really. Not to mention unsanitary. And another thing..." His train of thought was broken by a finger being jabbed repeatedly into his ribcage. Howard turned and glared at Vince in irritation, "What?"

"Maybe we should just do it. I know you said no way, but look at him, he's so sad. And he's probably gonna kill us if we don't."

Irritation turned to disbelief, "No!"

Vince shrugged and chewed on the nail of his left thumb, making sure Howard caught a glimpse of his tongue as it flicked over his lips. The moonlight in his hair made it shine brightly and his eyes almost seemed to give off a light of their own, radiating out from somewhere inside him.

He smiled in a way that looked just a little bit wicked and took a step closer to Howard, he raised himself onto tiptoes and whispered quietly in his ear, lips so close that they brushed against his skin, sending a shiver down Howard's spine. "It'll be good," Vince said, "I'll make you forget where we are, why we're here. You won't even notice that lot watching. All you'll know is you'll never want it to stop."

"I can't. I..." Howard looked at the sword-wielding lunatic watching them now with excitement and anticipation in his eyes. The rest of the council wore expressions ranging from lust to downright disgust. Naboo and Bollo were nowhere to be seen, presumably having slipped away unnoticed between the threats and the humiliation. He looked back at Vince, who had dropped down from his toes, but was still standing so close that Howard could smell his shampoo. It smelled nice.

This was so unbelievably wrong. He couldn't understand how this had happened. How does a normally completely sane person find himself in the middle of a forest, contemplating losing his virginity in front of an audience? And with his best friend too. No, he couldn't. Could he?

Vince reached up and stroked a finger down the side of Howard's face, turning his head until they were looking each other in the eye, "Please?" he said.

Howard bit his lip and swallowed hard, "Are you sure about this?" he asked.

Vince nodded.

"Then... yes. Okay. If... Look, I don't want anything to change between us, Vince. We've got a good thing, I don't want to break it."

Vince shook his head, "We won't," he lied. Of course things would change, but maybe they would change for the better. His head was spinning, he felt out of control but completely safe at the same time.

Vince hooked his arm around Howard's shoulder and pulled him closer until their lips touched. Somewhere at the edge of his awareness, he heard Dennis begin to chant. He couldn't make out the words, but they seemed to float in the air, settling on every surface, filling the clearing with magic.

In the sky high above them, the moon spun around and grinned widely. He glanced around until he noticed what was going on below him, "I'm the moon," he said, "I don't watch porn! Clouds, help!" Clouds began to gather around him until his view was blocked, "Bye!" he muttered, then spun back around so he wasn't facing Howard and Vince anyway.

And then, suddenly, the magic was gone. The forest seemed to grow darker, and Vince and Howard, sensing that something was wrong, stopped what they were doing and looked around.

Dennis stopped chanting and looked up at the sky in anger, "No! You stupid hunk of rock, I need you! Come back!"

"No," came a reply that seemed to come from nowhere.

Vince glanced at Howard and shrugged, then unfastened the fly of his jeans and reached forward to help Howard with his.

"Dennis," Saboo's voice cut over Dennis's cries of anger, "If the moon's not going to help, there's no point us having to watch this either. Could you take off the lust spell?"

"It's not a lust spell." Dennis flicked his hand vaguely towards Howard and Vince and muttered a few more words.

Howard suddenly realised what he was doing, standing in the forest clearing in full view of everyone, his trousers around his ankles and Vince's hand snaking its way into his underpants. He gasped and grabbed Vince's wrist, yanking the hand out and pulling up his trousers in one fluid movement. Vince had the grace to look embarrassed as he refastened his own jeans and glanced around in confusion.

"What just happened?" He asked.

"Lust spell," Harrison said, "but Dennis here went and ended it before it got interesting."

Dennis shook his head, "It was just a spell to lower your inhibitions. To get you more in the mood."

"What?" Howard spluttered, "How dare you? You had no right to do that!"

Harrison laughed harshly, "As if that's not the most fun you've had in your life! You should be thanking us!"

Dennis sighed, "Now what am I supposed to do? It's a whole month until the next full moon!"

As he spoke, Naboo and Bollo emerged from the woods and looked around at the scene. "How'd it go?" Naboo asked.

Dennis looked at him with a mixture of anger and exasperation, "Not well, Naboo. You will have to bring them back next month to try again."

"I don't think so," Howard told him, stepping forward authoritatively. "Vince was right. You, sir, are insane. Nothing could possibly convince us to come back here." He shook his head in disgust, "Using that spell, it's as bad as drugging us."

"Yeah." Vince crossed his arms across his chest and glowered at the Head Shaman, but kept Howard between himself and the man with the sword, for safety.

Naboo shrugged, "Sorry Dennis, I don't think they're up for it."

"I'll do it!" Harrison's voice sounded out loudly across the clearing.

"You?" Saboo wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Yeah, me and Mrs Harrison are still very much in love, I'll have you know. And she's very adventurous, it won't take much to convince her."

"Very well," said Dennis "then these two are free to go."

Harrison grinned widely, "This will be great!

Saboo shook his head, "I think I'll be calling in sick that night. It was bad enough having to watch these two, but you?"

"Tentacle sex!" Harrison told him, "Don't be embarrassed that it turns you on!"

Naboo motioned silently for Howard and Vince to follow him. They got on his carpet and snuck away into the night sky, leaving the Shamans to their bickering.

* * *

The awkward carpet ride home finally over, Naboo and Bollo slunk into their room, and Vince into his. Howard hesitated in the sitting room, not sure what to do. On the one hand, Vince had been unusually silent the whole trip home and had shut the door to the bedroom, presumably wanting to be on his own. On the other it was Howard's bedroom too, and he was tired, and the sofa was a poor substitute for his bed.

Only, it wasn't his bed, was it? It was _their_ bed. Already there when they had moved in, neither of them had seen the need to waste money buying another one when there was plenty of room for two people in the one they had. Of course, neither of them had ever envisioned this situation.

He put the kettle on to make a cup of tea, and made two out of habit. That decided it then. There was no point wasting a teabag, he'd have to go in and talk to Vince. He knocked softly on the bedroom door before he entered.

Vince was laying on the bed, still fully clothed. His hands supported his head from underneath the pillow, and his gaze was aimed at the ceiling above him. As Howard walked in, his eyes flickered to the side and followed him as he walked around the bed to Vince's side.

"Cup of tea?" Howard put a mug down on the table next to the bed, clearing a space for it by pushing Vince's moisturisers and make up out of the way, then walked back around to sit down on his own side of the bed. "Vince, are you okay?" He hadn't even acknowledged Howard's presence.

Vince pulled himself into a sitting position on the bed, reached for the mug and took a sip, "'Course, why?"

"I don't know, you just seemed a bit..." Down? Depressed? _Disappointed_? "Forget it. It doesn't matter."

More tea, sipped in silence. Howard tapped his fingertips on the duvet in time to the tune running through his head.

"Howard?"

"Hmm?"

"Were you really going to do it?"

Howard froze with his mug of tea half way to his lips. His eyes flickered over to look at Vince, but the other man's gaze was aimed far away, probably back in the forest re-watching the events of the night. "I..." The answer was yes, but for some reason Howard couldn't get the word to pass his lips.

"I was," Vince told him, "and I know it was because of the spell, but you were too, weren't you? I thought you might have chickened out at the last minute, but you were gonna go all the way."

"So were you!" Howard snapped back, "With your whispering in my ear, and touching my face, and all that eye contact!" Vince expelled air quickly through his nose in a kind of suppressed laugh, Howard ignored it, "You can hardly blame me for being confused. Anyone would think you actually wanted to..."

"I did." Vince put his mug down on the table and sat up straight, looking at Howard.

Howard turned to face him and thought hard, "Well, yes, it was the spell, wasn't it? I was almost convinced myself."

"Yeah, um," Vince scratched his nose and looked away, "the spell was just to make us relax though, wasn't it? Lower our inhibitions, or whatever he said. So doesn't that mean we'd only do stuff we didn't mind? "

"I don't know, Vince," He really wanted this conversation to be over.

Vince clearly wasn't picking up on that as he carried on, "'Cause the thing is... Is I kinda didn't mind. At all. If we'd done it, I would've been okay with that. Happy, even. I wanted to. Want to. I always did, to be honest. Well, not always, but..." he looked back at Howard, then away again, "Are you mad?"

For a while, Howard didn't reply. He didn't know how. The silence stretched between them for almost, but not quite, too long, before he finally shook his head, "I'm not mad, Vince. But why are you telling me this now?"

Vince shrugged, "I suppose it's because we came so close tonight, I just wanted to let you know that if we had done it, it would've been alright, If you'd wanted to... And I'm hoping you're going to say you wanted it too, because then I won't feel like such an idiot." He bit on his bottom lip and ran a hand quickly through his hair, then looked Howard in the eye. Howard, for once, didn't flinch or look away. "Sorry," he said, "It's the spell. I don't think it's worn off properly yet. It's making me make all this stuff up. We should go and tell Naboo, maybe he can take it off. Really, it's all the spell."

Howard placed his half drunk mug of tea down and brushed his fingertips gently across Vince's cheek, then leaned forward and kissed him. Vince stayed completely still, holding his breath, afraid that any reaction might startle Howard into realising what he was doing. Howard's lips brushed lightly against his own, without the spell to help him, much more hesitant and unsure than earlier that night. The kiss only lasted a moment, but it was enough. As soon as Vince convinced himself hat it had actually happened, he reached out and hooked an arm around Howard's back, holding him in place before he could move too far away. He breathed in deeply, drinking in Howards' scent, then he kissed him back. Howard wasn't as rubbish a kisser any more as he had been the first time on the roof. He'd had practise now, and he was surprisingly not bad. His lips were still pursed awkwardly, his teeth kept getting in the way, but it didn't matter. And this was a real kiss, in private, no one watching.

Vince slipped his tongue into Howard's mouth and began exploring, investigating the contours of this part of him he had never seen before. His hand slipped underneath Howard's hideous shirt clutched possessively at the bare skin.

Howard felt himself beginning to get hard as he leaned himself forwards, pushing Vince onto his back and kissed him more deeply. As he came up for air, reaching down at the same time to unfasten his belt, Vince half gasped, half whispered, "Howard, what are we doing?"

"It's the spell," Howard replied, breathless, " just like you said. It's reduced our inhibitions, it's making us..."

"Howard?" Vince interrupted.

"What?"

"It's not the spell, is it?"

Howard thought about it for less than a second, then shook his head and moved his hand to begin unzipping Vince's fly, "No," he said, "I think that's long gone."


End file.
